The Reuters agency published a report on the company Zanat from Konjic, which is owned by the Niksic family. This company is engaged in the production of handmade furniture and they export to the world market.

Reuters wrote that Niksic family is engaged in wood processing since the year of 1919, and that furniture from Konjic was exported to Paris and Milan 100 years ago. However, it was noted that the main producers were destroyed in the period from 1992-1995, i.e. during the war years.

“Now, furniture exports represent about 4 percent of the 16.8 billion USD GDP of Bosnia, a country of 3.5 million people whose exports are dominated by metals and electricity.”

Writing about the Niksic family, Reuters stated that they started business again after the war and that they are manufacturing traditional furniture. Their exports experienced great expansion in the year of 2015 when they launched their brand “Zanat”, as noted by Orhan Niksic, who owns the company together with his brother Adem.

“We blend traditional woodcarving techniques with modern design and our products made of high-quality natural materials are sold on four continents,” said Niksic for Reuters.

He added that they doubled the work force in previous years. Zanat exports about 95 % of its furniture pieces made of walnut, oak and maple, mostly to the market of Europe, the US, Australia and Hong Kong. Prices range from 700 EUR to 4,000 EUR a piece, as stated by Niksic.

Brand “Zanat” experienced a real bloom in cooperation with renown furniture designers, but other manufacturers in BiH are facing with a lack of raw materials and government support.

“We have raw-materials and market demand but uncontrolled logging and export of sawlogs may cost the sector dearly,” said Suad Eco, chief executive of Sarajevo-based Inside company, which produces large pieces of furniture made from beech wood.

The government should make wood a strategic sector and ban exports of sawlogs and timber and tax some semi-processed products, Eco said.

UNESCO listed Konjic woodcarving last December as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, in part because of the family’s efforts, as Reuters wrote in the report.

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The Ambassador of the Republic of France to Bosnia and Herzegovina Guillaume Rousson has been on this duty since June 2017. He says that he had been in Bosnia and Herzegovina several times in his previous duties and that he had already recognized the identity and charm of our country.
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